Do not look in the dictionary, this word doesn’t exist. I created it because I couldn’t find a word that defined well enough who I am.

Gourmand, gourmet, foodie or epicurean were not the right words, we did not find the “terroir” and tradition dimension of the passion and the greed that animate me.

A GOURMEUR is a person who likes to eat and share local good products, dishes of our grandmothers and who honors the traditional cuisine of his country, this is a GOURMEUR !

THE PROJECT

Le Gourmeur is a 11-month and 5 000 km bike tour of France to meet food craftsmen to discover and to promote traditional French cuisine and local products.

Le Gourmeur is also a dream, but above all an entrepreneurial project.

This bike tour of traditional French cuisine and local products has two dimensions

#1 – A personal dimension

“It’s better to live your dreams than dream your life”

That is my motto (to find out who is behind this project, go down to the “Who am I?” section).

My dream was to cycle around France to discover and taste all the specialities of my beautiful country.

#2 – An entrepreneurial dimension

The objective is to offer a fully digital culinary travel guide allowing everyone to travel differently and discover France under a culinary axis.

This first phase of 9 months cycling should make it possible to reference the products and craftsmen who will be put forward in this guide.

WHY THIS PROJECT ?

Do you like to travel? YES? Me too!

I did my last year of study abroad, in 10 months I lived and visited about ten countries: Burkina Faso, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Burma, China…

Tourist visits are often limited to 2 approaches to discover a country: history and architecture, both inscribed in the past. These are not the approaches I prefer; when I travel, I like to understand and experience a country through its food.

Temples are good, eating is better!

It is often difficult to know what is really local or to know the story of recipes or products. The traditional travel guides are limited to a few addresses often very tourist, far from the way of consumption of the locals. Add the language barrier and it quickly becomes impossible to explore the gastronomy of a country.

That’s why I decided to launch this entrepreneurial project: create a culinary travel guide to travel differently in France.

Le Gourmeur is not only for foreigners eager to discover our country, NO! According to a study of the site quitoque.fr, only 18% of the French are able to quote the emblematic dish of their region !

Then, you too, discover France through its gastronomy!

WHO AM I ?

My name is Pierre-Louis TOURNEUR

My passion for traditional French cuisine was born by watching my grandmother and my cook. I caught the virus and felt in love with the cast-iron casserole and simmered dishes. Above all, food and cooking is a love story.

After graduating from AgroParisTech engineering school in food engineering, I continued my studies at ESSEC, apprenticeship at Servair (Air France’s airline catering). During my training I stayed 10 months abroad, that changed my vision of the world, but above all I realised how much French food is famous all over the world.

Be deprived of what you love, help you realise the value of this thing. For me, it was traditional French cuisine. No crusty baguette, no cold cuts, no beef bourguignon or good French wine for 10 months. I was obsessed with that, I dreamed it, it was one of my only topics of conversation with my friends. I tried to evangelise foreigners I met, to teach them what true traditional French cuisine is. Is good food a religion?

This experience allowed me to understand what I wanted to do with my life … Live my dream and my passion !!

This dream, which consists of promoting and democratising traditional French cuisine throughout the world, with the aim that everyone can have access to this part of paradise, traditional French cuisine.

I was ready to live my dream, however, I felt that something was missing. Indeed, I learned a lot about traditional French cuisine with books and the internet. But the food is not limited to recipes, it is made with humans, stories, moments of life and sharing. It was necessary for me to live traditional French cuisine for 9 months with my bike. The project ” Le Gourmeur ” arose.

Follow Me

My name is Pierre-Louis, I am French, blogger, but above all passionated by traditional French food. I decided to create Bon Appétit Foodies and do a cycling tour of France to make you discover France, its culinaire traditions and products. If you want to know more about my project and who I am, just click here .